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Nader Says He's Running for U.S. Presidency Again (Update2)

By John Brinsley

Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who ran for president in 2000 and 2004, said he's going to make another bid for the White House this year.

``I have decided to run for president,'' Nader, 73, said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' program today. He said felt a duty to enter the race because the major party candidates aren't adequately addressing the influence of lobbyists and wasteful spending in government.

``When you see the paralysis of the government, when you see Washington, D.C., be corporate-occupied territory, every department and agency controlled by overwhelming presence of corporate lobbyists, corporate executives in high government positions, turning the government against its own people, one feels an obligation to try and open the doorways,'' he said.

Nader risks the wrath of Democrats, many of whom blame him for spoiling former Vice President Al Gore's bid for the presidency in 2000. Nader got 97,488 votes in Florida, the state that decided that election; President George W. Bush ended up winning the state by just 537 votes.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton today called Nader's decision ``unfortunate.''

Nader rejected the suggestion that his campaign cost Gore the election.

``If you look at it analytically, Mr. Gore would tell you that if he'd won Tennessee, everything else being equal, he would've been president,'' Nadar said. ``It's his home state.''

National Vote

Nader won 2.7 percent of the national vote in 2000 when he was the Green Party candidate. In 2004, his independent presidential campaign drew 0.3 percent of the vote nationwide.

Clinton, a New York senator, told reporters today aboard her campaign plane that Nader's decision is ``not helpful to whoever the Democratic nominee is.''

Illinois Senator Barack Obama, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, said yesterday at Ohio State University in Columbus that while Nader is ``a heroic figure'' for his work on behalf of consumers, ``Mr. Nader is somebody who, if you don't listen and adopt all of his policies, thinks you're not substantive.''

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said on CNN's ``Late Edition'' program today that Nader ``would probably pull votes away from the Democrats, not Republicans.''

Republican Welcome

``Actually, Republicans would welcome his entry into the race,'' Huckabee said.

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, a Democrat who supports Obama, said today on ``Fox News Sunday'' that he doesn't think Nader's candidacy will affect the presidential race.

When Nader formed a committee to consider a White House run last month, he said he believed the current contenders weren't standing up enough to corporate interests.

``Look at the major areas of injustice, deprivation and solutions that are not being addressed by the major candidates,'' Nader said in a Jan. 30 interview with Bloomberg News. Among other issues, he cited the need for a ``practical timed withdrawal'' from Iraq, programs to crack down on corporate fraud and a rearrangement of the U.S. tax system.

Nader said last month that he would want to raise $10 million over the course of the campaign. By comparison, Clinton and Obama each have raised more than $120 million in political contributions.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Brinsley in Washington at jbrinsley@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: February 24, 2008 12:17 EST